Alongside his sons Ben Lee-Madgwick and Tristan Lee-Madgwick and fellow residents Terry and Debbie Batey and Gerard Fredrickson they recently took part in the Rockynat Burnout Competition, bringing four cars to the competition.
The competition, which took place over the Easter long weekend, is part of the Australiawide Burnout Masters Competition which, as the name suggest, involves the best of the best in Australia battling it out to do the best burnouts.
However when talking to the Courier Heath said it involved a lot more than burning rubber.
“It involves driver skills, usage of the pad (burnout area), ensuring you have continuous smoke and RPM,” he said.
The event, held in Rockhampton, Queensland, had more than 20,000 people in attendance and with more than 150 competitors taking part.
For Heath, the event has been part of a life-long passion for cars.
“I’ve always loved burnouts and basically we just started doing them and built cars for them.”
The cars involved in the competition aren’t your average cars and Heath said it could take months to custom build a car appropriate for competition.
“We took a Holden Commodore and stripped it to the shell and took it from there,” he said.
According to Heath, even when built, the cars are always being fixed and repaired in an ongoing process to refine the car for competitions.
This process has a knock-on effect of making burnout competition participants incredibly skilled mechanics.
The Rockynat competition had multiple categories and the Moira Shire locals acquitted themselves well.
Heath’s son Ben Lee-Madgwick came first in the Open Class and his other son Tristan Lee-Madgwick came third in the Pro Class category with Gerard Fredrickson coming fourth in the same category.
As for anyone wanting to take part, Heath said it was an experience not easily replicated.
“It’s an awesome sports and you meet great people from all around Australia. It’s the best sports I’ve ever been involved in,” he said.
The issue of burnouts have recently come to the forefront with Moira Shire Council discussing the development of a pad area in Strathmerton with administrator for council John Tanner stating in a council meeting on March 22 that there had been many voices for and against the proposed development.
Ultimately the decision made by council was to give tentative approval to the development of a skid pad so long as developers adhere to all conditions laid out by council including ensuring the plan is approved by Environmental Protection Agency.
As for Heath, he believes that there will always be opponents in any development plan but it is far better to have burnout competitions in a controlled environment.
“Everyone has an opinion, it doesn’t matter what sport it is. Ours is just louder and smokier,” he said
“Burnouts are becoming a bigger thing and it’s better in a controlled environment.”
